Institute for Economics and Peace (IEP) reveals the most peaceful countries in the world. Despite living in the most peaceful century in human history, the world has become less peaceful over the last decade.

Management | Compliance Risk
Corporations are stepping up their efforts to mitigate execution risk in cross-border mergers and acquisitions, as growing numbers of regulators worldwide are becoming more stringent about enforcing antitrust and anticorruption laws.

Milestones | Commonwealth Of Independent States
In October, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Russia put the finishing legal touches to the creation of the Eurasian Economic Union, which comes into being on January 1, 2015.

Milestones | Myanmar
After five decades of economic isolation, on October 1, Myanmar took its first big step into the global financial system, granting nine foreign lenders preliminary approval to operate in the country.

Capital Markets | Middle East Equity
The Middle East is experiencing a boom in initial public offerings, following years of relative inactivity since the global financial crisis. The area’s IPO markets began to recover in the fourth quarter of last year, and new share issues are now coming at a fever pitch, despite falling oil prices that could threaten regional economies.

In what is considered a first step for even bigger foreign direct investment to Sri Lanka, TPG Capital announced in August it would invest $113 million to buy a majority stake in Union Bank, a small distressed financial institution based in Colombo.

This month the European Central Bank will start to buy euro-denominated asset-backed securities (ABS) and covered bonds in an effort to revive a market that has been sharply impaired since the financial crisis.

CAPITAL MARKETS | FOREIGN EXCHANGE
It is a changing world for FX traders. Regulatory uncertainty and low volatility are putting a damper on the foreign exchange market, with spreads narrowing by 20% already this year—to record lows.

UNITED STATES
In its 2013 report to Congress, the Export-Import Bank of the United States says that its “overriding mission is to create and sustain American jobs by supporting US exports.” But that very mission is under threat, with House Financial Services Committee chairman Jeb Hensarling, among others, seeking to abolish the bank.

CAPITAL MARKETS | MIDDLE EAST EQUITY
Riyadh, the Saudi capital, has already built a new financial district, named after King Abdullah, but its 42 new skyscrapers stand largely empty. That could change following the decision by the government in July to allow foreign financial institutions to invest directly in listed shares, starting in the first half of 2015.

ARGENTINA
The aftermath of Argentina’s so-called default on July 31 doesn’t at all resemble the catastrophe accompanying its earlier default in 2002, when the country was unable to repay $100 billion of debt and the economy collapsed, costing millions of jobs.

THE BRICS
Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa now have something more in common than rapidly developing economies that have recently stalled. In July they gave life to the New Development Bank (NDB), the first multilateral institution controlled by developing countries.

CAPITAL MARKETS FOCUS | MERGERS & ACQUISITIONS
Mergers and acquisitions in 2014 are being announced at the fastest pace since the financial crisis of 2008–2009, but broken deals are also setting records for the same period.